Future Inventors Wanted!

Join us for our second-annual design hackathon with AIG and the Southbank Centre as we again tackle a societal design challenge.

What’s our challenge for this year? We’ll work together to create inventions of the future that will improve our lives – at home, at school & in your community. So, get ready to use your creativity & collaboration skills and let’s create incredible solutions together that can positively impact our future… even starting from the very next day

Meet the team!

Melissa Rancourt,Chairman and Founder. Melissa is an engineer herself and loves the Big Bang TV show, so much so that she does a workshop based on it which has proved to be one of the favourites of the girls. Melissa is a true science geek and doesn't mind who knows this! Her story is our story so check it out here!

g4g Founder and Chairman, Brussels

I am truly passionate about our wonderful partnership with Greenlight for Girls and I love developing new fun events together!

AIG Corporate Citizenship and Events Manager, London

Having grown up wanting to be Indiana Jones, Alexaundra loves to find new ways to combine her passions for science, history, languages and world travel. She has a Master's degree in European Studies, co-taught an after school science program at ISB, and currently loves being a member of the g4g headquarter team!

g4g Operations Manager, Brussels

When she is not posting/youtubing/instagraming or hashtaging, Marie is usually in front of her sewing machine. Or learning how to do aerial hoop. Or taking a webinar on cyber security! She visited 20 countries in the world so far and doesn't plan to stop before she saw them all. An ecofriendly advocate she firmly believes that the children will be the ones to save our planet and she can't wait to see them succeed.

g4g Events & Communication manager, Brussels

Lucy Reynaud is an Aussie expat married to a fabulous Frenchman and has 3 young children who were each born in different countries. She’s an all or nothing girl, therefore most likely to be found either out training for a half marathon… or lazing around reading her third book this week. She is a Gemmologist and Diamond Grader by profession, a total nerd, and likes to think of herself as a semi-professional dumpling & massage tester too.

g4g HQ Coordinator, Brussels

Take a look at our previous events!

2017

On September 9th, we hosted our first ever Design Hackathon in partnership with AIG at the Southbank Centre, bringing together 45 girls aged 11-18 from around London to brainstorm and create solutions on how to secure strong financial futures for women and girls from all backgrounds. Beginning the day by fun, hands-on activities to get to know each other, the girls soon dove into the design thinking process, led by the fabulous design service experts Marina Terteryan and g4g Founder, Melissa Rancourt! Next up – the research and ideating process! Each group was given a different & relatable persona to explore in order to understand different financial situations. By the end of the day, each of the ten groups built a unique solution to the problem before them – and they quickly found engaging ways to make their idea come to life! The girls came up with a wide range of prototypes – from apps designed to ease the process of saving money to organisations aimed at making it easy to address financial concerns – and all with teamwork, ingenuity, and creativity!

Thank you to all our inspiring judges – AIG Director Vicky Churcher, Southbank Senior Programmer, Domino Pateman, quantum ballerina Merritt Mooree, Physics PhD candidate Jess Wade, and our founder and entrepreneur, Melissa! A special thank you to all the AIG volunteers that came out to support and mentor the girls – your leadership and engagement was inspiring - as well as our fabulous project lead from AIG, Sarah Davies!